Barrier Nets

The fastest growing vehicle sectors are MPVs, Hatchbacks, Estates and SUVs, mainly because these provide more practicality over the traditional saloon type vehicle. These vehicles, having cabins with integrated load areas, offer greater versatility, allowing luggage space to be changed and expanded by using folding seats; whilst large tailgate openings make it easy to load large bulkier items into the load area, as well as pets.

At the same time, the safety of the passenger environment is increasingly important, driven by various various global safety standards and testing requirements. The resultant safety improvements are proven through extensive crash testing under tightly controlled conditions.

So how do we provide the ability to carry ever-more bulky loads, yet at the same time continually improve passenger safety in the cabin?

This is where barrier devicesBarrier Nets come in.

ACT produce barrier nets made purposely to separate the load area from the passenger cabin areas. These nets are tethered to hard points in the vehicle and offer a physical barrier between the two spaces, offering protection from the cargo in the event of a crash or sudden deceleration. The nets are made of special fabrics with high tensile properties designed to contain the load, but still provide rearward visibility. In order to offer greater protection, we often use deformation zones to allow controlled movement in the structure which spreads the intensity of the force, reducing the peak loads. In destructive tests beyond the required retention load, often the hard points that tether the barrier net fail before the barrier net itself.

ACT’s barrier nets are also able to be taken out without any tools, with ease, and being made of net material, can be rolled up into an easy to store package, ready for the next time they need to be used.

We also make load partitioning screens for convertibles, to define the area of the load space taken up by the folded roof.